Hurrahs and Boos for the New Jim Carrey

Re “Humor Too Dark for Its Own Good?,” June 25. Over the last two weeks, there has been continued speculation regarding the relative “failure” of the Jim Carrey starrer “The Cable Guy” (though $40 million-plus at the box office in two weeks is hard to regard as failure). Most of the second-guessing has pointed to Carrey’s miscalculating his audience when he decided to do such a dark film. But the real problem here is that the film simply is not very good. Nor is it very bad, either. America may very well be ready to embrace Carrey in a different kind of film, but it had better be a good one.

I applaud Carrey’s desire to “stretch” as an actor. But maybe he should take a page out of the Bruce Willis book and take a few smaller roles in smaller movies to showcase his diverse acting skills.

PAUL L. KLEIMAN

Los Angeles

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Re “Dumb or Ace Career Move for Carrey?” (June 21). I have two words of advice for Jim Carrey to ponder before altering the comedy audiences want . . . Eddie Murphy.

BRIAN HUNT

Santa Monica